François Templier is the director of Nanoelec/Displed program. (c) P.Jayet/CEA
François Templier, CEA Research Director and Society For Information Display (SID) France Chapter Director , heads up the brand new Nanoelec/Displed program.
What drives you in the program you’re heading up?
I’ve been managing CEA-Leti’s Display Tech program since 2017. Management of the Nanoelec/Displed program allows me to broaden the scope of our cooperation with display manufacturers in a multilateral context. We should be able to accelerate our road map for supporting industry by getting stakeholders from different levels in the value chain around the same table. We intend developing a radically new microLED-based, high-performance display based on a so-called “Smartpixel” chip, for which we’ll expand the application field and strengthen mass production processes. We’ll open up the way to ultra-high resolution video walls, very large flat screens for television or interactive meetings, flexible displays and screens prompting a real feeling of 3-dimensional immersion in a virtual or remote world.
What is the Smartpixel you refer to?
It’s a component that integrates a number of red, blue and green microLEDs into a unique control circuit co-assembled on a CMOS standard wafer. Each of these “Smartpixel” units is then transferred to a connecting support that forms the screen. This breakthrough approach will nevertheless require new developments, in particular the so-called “mass transfer” step. Ultimately, we’ll benefit from higher performance displays enabling new functionalities; this represents a real technological and economic breakthrough. It’s exactly this opportunity that we’re studying within the Nanoelec/Displed framework.
Why is it essential to continue developing very high performance image restitution systems and to be capable of manufacturing them in Europe and France?
By federating key industrial and academic players, our ambition is to rebuild a display industry in France and Europe that can be as strong as the one we had during the time of cathode ray tubes, which were ousted in the 1990s by LCDs of Asian origin.”
“We live in a society in which images are increasingly present. Why is this? Well, not only because people are spending longer and longer in front of displays, but also because they are seeking systems that are more immersive and free of the constraints represented by 3D glasses, for example. New display technologies must ensure not only higher image qualities, but they must also enhance functionalities (3D Multivue, flexible screen, interactivity). It’s legitimate that European and French industries build a solid offer in the microLED market, thereby taking advantage of its very dynamic growth, which should approach 3 billion USDs in 2024, especially in relation to television (TrendForce market intelligence provider).
What is your career path?
I’ve been involved in digital display development for 28 years. I first worked at Thalès before joining CEA in 1999. While fulfilling the various functions of researcher, project manager and program manager, I’ve worked with every type of display (LCD, OLED, microLED, microscreens, flexible screens, TFT active matrices). Finally, my involvement as director of the France Chapter of the Society For Information Display (SID) allows me to continuously consolidate a 360° view of the state of the art in this field.
The Nanoelec/Displed program prepares real breakthroughs in the display industry value chain as well as new image functionalization. © Pixabay